Southampton Solent Sky Museum reveals extension plans

The Calshot Spit light vessel has sat outside the Solent Sky museum since 2019

A museum dedicated to Southampton's aviation heritage is hoping to expand after efforts to move to alternative sites failed.

The Solent Sky Museum has submitted plans for a two-storey extension to its premises in Albert Road.

The new extension would hold aviation exhibits as well as providing educational and events space.

The museum's trustees said a "major fundraising initiative" would be needed to pay for the work.

In the plans, they said the aim was to "enlarge the museum and embrace more of the industrial heritage of the Solent area".

Jet fighter

Efforts to find another site with larger footfall elsewhere in the city had proved unsuccessful and enlarging the current building was a "realistic and exciting option".

A previous plan for a waterside transport museum under the name Aeronautica stalled in 2012 when its proposed site was withdrawn.

Among the exhibits housed in the new extension would be the Britten-Norman Trislander which operated between Southampton and the Channel islands and was acquired by the museum after it was retired in 2017.

A pioneering Supermarine Swift single-seat jet fighter aircraft that was developed in Southampton during the 1940s and 1950s is also part of the display.

The 170-tonne Calshot Spit light vessel, which was moved to the museum in 2019, is being incorporated into the museum's cafe.